Battle of Corunna : 16th January 1809

Mentioned on one of my previous posts we played the battle of Corunna, a good chance to get the Naps out for their first battle this year. Obviously a very famous encounter from the Peninsular War. But also a large battle. Using John Sutherland Scenario book and with a bit of licence I was able to cover most of the battle. Effectively each Battalion or unit is the equivalent of a Brigade historically. (The editor I previously  used for doing my blog posts seems to have stopped working making it more annoying to post so the test will likely be even shorter than normal)

A map showing the lead up action to the battle, basically the British are being chased by the numerically superior French and looking to escape. The grim winter forced march cost many lives and as the British approach their fleet at Corunna they were pinned by the French under General Soult.

A period map of the battle 

The essence of the battle setup up is the British hold a series of low hills protecting the town of Corunna. There are three main villages Elvina, where most of the fighting took place, Piedralonga and Oza slightly to the rear of the British line. The British are outnumbered but they need to hold the three hills. We had a couple of scenario designs features. Given the huge numerical advantage we gave the French some command issues and brigades would fail to activate on a 1or 2. Historically Sir John Moore was mortally wounded during the battle so so if any units took wounds from firing within 12” inches then each turn a check would have to be made to see it he had been wounded.

Looking down the French line in the foreground the French light cavalry, Elvina in the centre of the battlefield

From the other end the thin line of British defenders

Hope’s Brigade looks particularly isolated !

British reserves under Paget

As the battle starts with some preliminary artillery fire from the French would you believe it second turn John Moore fails his wound test and has to be carried from the field 😂 we then allowed Hope to take over as I believe he did historically leaving his brigade on the British left

The french fail a number of activation tests at the start, the cavalry seem reluctant to get moving

Eventually the french massed columns get moving towards Elvina

The British reserves start to move forward as well

The British invest the village of Elvina

But a small detachment of french light infantry get into the small church, the British guards charge forward to through them back out…

The British reserves now pull up onto the ridge

The french start to surround the village

Despite the ferocious charge of the guards the french hold the church and the British are in danger of being outflanked

The french are pushing into the village, but the small stream and the defended terrain hamper the advance, the British fight tenaciously

The french now push around Elvina making for the ridge

But they are held back on the left

On the far right of the french line it has taken ages to force their way across the stream under fire and they can’t close with the defenders

British light cavalry from the reserve charge across the ridge catching some of the French in column

And on the left the french cavalry finally get a charge in but make little impact

The french are now pushing onto the ridge and through Elvina

And finally on the french right they break across the stream and the heavily outnumbered defenders of Hope brigade start to break, true to form only the Highlanders hold

The fight for the ridge, the British desperate now, throw the already exhausted and shaken foot guards into to combat

The french have captured one of their objectives the hills at the back of Peidralonga

The french though have failed to make any impact on the left, again true to form the broken ground has prevented the french cavalry making any impact

In the centre the ridge is being contested although the French have taken the village. At this point we came to our time limit. It felt pretty much like a draw although perhaps the French have the advantage and are still pushing forward.

A good battle and nice to get the Peninsular collection out on the table. I was keen to see if we could recreate larger battles with some sense of scale and this seemed to work out ok 👍

A bit of painting this week mainly completing italian forces for Sicily

Two captured French tanks handed over to the Italians by the Germans. A repainted R35 and an R39

An M13/40 Armato light tank, you will note nones of the tanks have any markings this was because I couldn’t find the decal sheet, but it finally turned up at the weekend so I will apply a few markings later

And the Italian infantry who were partly painted, four squads of infantry. A mix of uniforms as they had supply problems at this point in the war, the Italians saw combat this weekend but more of that later ?

Thanks as always for popping by, only three battles to catch up on now 🙂

Matt ♥️